When it comes to determining the best way to get rid of lice, most parents fall into two groups. The first takes the DIY approach—these are the do-it-yourself folks who will trudge to the drugstore and get the lice-removal products or home-remedy alternatives and get busy nitpicking. Then there is the PWIT crowd—the pay-whatever-it-takes parents that will grab the phone and call for help.
The PWITers have spawned an industry, with lice-removal services offered just about everywhere. Some perform their services in your home, while others operate out of storefronts.
It is certainly understandable that parents with the means to do so would want to hire a professional lice-removal service. It is a painstaking process, where success is never certain. Ensuring that every louse and egg (nit) is removed can take parents several weeks of daily combing and meticulous inspections. While hiring others do this can be attractive, there are some things to consider before grabbing your phone and your wallet to outsource nitpicking.
First, professional nitpickers don’t have access to anything you don’t have access to. There is no formal training program or certification for head-lice removal, and there are no products available for professionals that are not available to consumers. This means they have the tools we all have—the insecticides that are increasingly ineffective, and the natural products that are unproven.
While professional lice services may not have any secret weapons against head lice, they may have the patience and experience that parents don’t have. Getting the nits out is the most difficult and important part of lice removal—they are small, hard to see, and they latch onto hair with a substance akin to superglue. It’s hard to get them all out, and if you don’t get the eggs, the lice will return. It is tedious work. That said, not all “lice consultants” as one service calls them, will have the same level of experience, so human error may still be concern.
When it comes to the PWIT option, “whatever it takes” can turn into a pretty big number. Most lice services charge at least $100 per hour, with a one-hour minimum. Mobile services sometimes include travel time in that calculation. Some require that every member of the household be checked for head lice for a fee. Most lice services will also require as many as three appointments in order to validate that the lice and eggs have all been removed. The hours can add up fast.
Lice Clinics of America has pioneered a completely new approach to head-lice removal based on science, medicine and training. They are the exclusive provider of AirAllé, a medical device cleared by the FDA as safe and effective for head-lice removal.
It uses carefully controlled, warm air that kills lice and 99.2 percent of eggs by dehydrating them. Lice Clinics of America has treatment centers throughout the United States and around the world, offering lice removal in a single session—usually about one hour to ninety minutes.
Lice Clinics of America and AirAllé take the guesswork out of head-lice removal. All clinics are staffed with operators who have been certified to operate the AirAllé medical device. There are no dangerous chemicals to worry about, no rechecks required; and no meticulous nitpicking to be performed.
It takes human error—a frequent cause of unsuccessful treatments—out of the head-lice-removal process.
